Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico, third from left, stands outside the Evergreen Street apartment building in January, where a Harrisburg police officer shot and killed 29-year-old Ishmael Muhammad.
Paul Chaplin | pchaplin@pennlive.com

Yet in the midstate court system, Muhammad had a record of drug dealing convictions tinged with guns and violence.

PennLive delved into his background and treatment by the courts, as authorities continue their investigation into the incident that led to his death in a third-floor apartment in the 100 block of Evergreen Street.

His court records show that between 2000 and 2009, Muhammad was charged with crimes six times, including a violent attack in the city that involved his father and brother.

Amid his stints on probation and in county and state prisons, local judges imposed requirements on Muhammad aimed at encouraging him to reform, opportunities that repeatedly ended in probation revocations and trips back to jail.

"Obviously, when somebody has that many offenses, they're a problem," Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said.

Yet Marsico and Cumberland County First Assistant District Attorney Jaime Keating, who also prosecuted Muhammad for drug dealing, said nothing about Muhammad raised a dangerous red flag.

Keating said that, based on his criminal record, Muhammad seemed to be just a typical street-level drug dealer.

Preliminarily, Marsico has said it appears officers handled the situation properly. Muhammad was the first person a member of the crisis response team killed in its 21-year history.

Investigators do know that packaging for some sort of synthetic drug, perhaps bath salts, was found at the scene, Marsico said. Such drugs have been known to cause hallucinations.

Muhammad also had arrests for possessing PCP, another powerful hallucinogenic drug.

Police reported that before the shooting, repeated attempts to negotiate with Muhammad were futile.

"He was screaming. He was yelling. He was threatening," Marsico said.

He said a city police officer killed Muhammad to save the hostages, a 2-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man, who uses a wheelchair. The boy was the child of Muhammad's girlfriend and the man, her brother, Marsico said.

Officers at the scene knew little about Muhammad other than his name, he said.

Muhammad's first arrest as an adult was in Dauphin County in December 2000. He, his father and a brother were charged with attacking a man and the man's mother with punches, kicks and hammers at the Uptown Shopping Center. In arrest papers, police said Muhammad's father also stabbed the other man.

Muhammad pleaded guilty to charges of simple assault and making terroristic threats in that case in May 2002. He initially was sentenced by Judge Jeannine Turgeon to intermediate punishment, a form of intensive probation.

After he repeatedly violated that sentence, Turgeon resentenced him first to terms in the county prison's work-release center and finally to 2 to 5 years in state prison.

Turgeon's escalating penalties occurred in tandem with Muhammad's ongoing series of arrests and convictions. Conditions Turgeon placed on him included orders to:

Get a full-time job,

Pay child support,

Undergo drug testing,

Seek an Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.

In March 2003, city police charged Muhammad with possessing marijuana and marijuana laced with PCP.

Two years later, he was charged again with drug possession and sent to state prison.

Muhammad posted twin arrests for drug dealing in Dauphin and Cumberland counties in the spring of 2009, again earning state prison terms. In both cases, he was charged with selling crack cocaine to undercover officers.

For his Dauphin County conviction, President Judge Todd A. Hoover sentenced Muhammad to 1 to 4 years in jail with an order for vocational training, plus requirements that he obey a 9 p.m. curfew and undergo outpatient drug abuse treatment as conditions for parole.

Muhammad could have gotten a stiffer sentence, but during plea negotiations, the prosecution dropped a bid to have an additional 5-year mandatory prison term imposed because a gun was present during the Dauphin County drug deal. Muhammad wasn't armed, but a man with him was carrying a pistol.

Muhammad appeared contrite during his August 2010 sentencing in the Cumberland County drug dealing case.

"I take full responsibility for my actions," he said as Judge Edward E. Guido prepared to impose a 9-month to 7-year state prison term. "I apologize to the commonwealth and I'm really looking forward to changing my life and becoming a productive member of society."

"Well," Guido replied, "I hope that happens. You have been in trouble pretty consistently over the past 10 years. It's time to grow up."

"Yes sir," Muhammad said.

Cumberland County First Assistant District Attorney Jaime KeatingMatt Miller, The Patriot-News

Keating said the amount of crack cocaine that Muhammad sold to police on the West Shore was small.

"He had a long (criminal) record, but nothing that jumped out at you," Keating said. "There was nothing that stood out as antisocial."

He said the prosecution didn't make a sentencing recommendation in the Cumberland County case, and later didn't comment when the state Parole Board decided when to release Muhammad from prison.

Muhammad's final arrest occurred in November 2009 when police claimed he was caught in Harrisburg with 13 vials of PCP, a knife, BB gun and $2,080 in cash. He pleaded guilty to drug possession in May 2010 and received a 4- to 12-month prison term.

SAD, FAMILIAR PATTERN

The sentences imposed on Muhammad are somewhat entangled, given the mix of probation and county and state prison terms he received over the years. Some of his prison terms were run concurrently, and at times his arrests and convictions triggered parole violations.

Leo Dunn, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, said Muhammad was paroled from state prison for the last time on Nov. 17, 2011.

He had been freed on parole in August of that year, but logged a parole violation and was reimprisoned in October 2011 to finish his sentences, Dunn said.

Marsico said Muhammad's history of drug-related arrests and repeated incarcerations follows a sadly familiar pattern. So, he said, do the court-ordered but unsuccessful bids for reform.

Drug courts, which operate in several midstate counties, are tough, closely monitored voluntary programs aimed at ridding chronic drug users of the habits that steer them toward crime. The failure rate is high, and the programs are considered so demanding that many candidates choose to go to prison instead.

Marsico said it is unclear whether Muhammad would have qualified for Dauphin County's drug court. Muhammad had a significant criminal record by the time the program began in 2008, and it usually doesn't admit violent criminal offenders, he said.

In any case, Marsico said it appears that local judges tried to give Muhammad the opportunities he needed to veer into a law-abiding life.

"Certainly the court was very patient with him," he said. "It gave Mr. Muhammad the chance to rehabilitate."

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